This week's Monster Monday spotlights Monsters in Love Coloring Book at Amazon. You'll find various monsters, skeletons, mummies and ghosts to color. Okay, you might not have to color the ghosts unless you want them to match your non-white sheets. The horror in this is suitable for all ages and is cute to boot.
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Need something cool to cover that bare spot on your wall? Then you might want to check out this cool Vintage Monster Models Ad Tin Sign at Amazon. It repoduces the black and white magazine ad featuring model kits of your favorite Universal monsters including Dracula, the Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein and the Mummy.
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Start your New Year off right by picking up the Universal Monsters 2026 Calendar. It measures 12" x 24" when open and features all the federal holidays. The front cover features Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Mummy and Dracula.
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The sixth stand alone book in the Creepers series is The Gravedigger by Edgar J. Hyde. The Price family includes father Andrew, son Jamie and daughter Paula. Their ghostly friends include Count Vania, who faints at the sight of blood, and Wolfie, a werewolf that's afraid of his own reflection. Their other ghostly friends include Mummy, who trips over his own bandages, and Lex Killon, a headless ghost that was on the Titanic that spits out saltwater when he tries to talk. The Price family and the ghosts recently moved to a house in the center of a graveyard. Ebenezer Krim is the graveyard gardener that planned on buying the house. He pays a visit and accuses Paula of knocking over twenty-three gravestones the night before. She lets it slip that it was actually Mummy that did it. Krim teams up with a sinister ghost named the Gravedigger, who was a former employee of the graveyard. I thought the friendly four ghosts was going make this a silly book. Instead, it was actually good with a nice mix of humor and scares. My only complaint was that it was too short at 104 pages. Overall, I give it an A-.
Archie Comics continues to celebrate 80 years and the spooky season with Archie's Halloween Spectacular #1. This one-shot comes out today and the cover by Dan Parent features Archie as a vampire, Jughead as a mummy, Veronica as a witch, Betty as a prom queen and Medusa Doom (she doesn't appear in any of the stories inside this issue). There is an alternate cover featuring Archie along with Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and the Mummy. The original story is "Trick or Treat" featuring the South Side Serpents (Toni, Weasel, Termite, Fangs and Daisy). Other stories include "One Prank Too Far" with the Archie gang and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Betty and Veronica in "That's the Spirit!", "Ruff Halloween", "It Ghost to Show You", "The Ghostest with the Mostest". Here is the official summary:
"Archie’s Halloween Spectacular #1 (2025) : This ain’t no trick, we’re TREATing you with a Halloween spectacular that’s BIGGER than ever! Now packed with over 40 PAGES of content, including a BRAND NEW STORY! The South Side Serpents are trying to recruit new members — and what better time to start their initiation than Halloween? This story is filled to the brim with tricks! Featuring fan-favorite characters and returning new faces like MEDUSA DOOM!"
Monster High: World's Scare #1 from IDW Publishing is out today.
Here's the spooky summery found on the back cover: "Surprise, ghouls — I'm baaack. Did you miss me? For those unacquainted, let me reintrobooce myself. I'm Monster High's purrmiere gossip account, CryptCrier. I know everything and everyghoul. And here is my juiciest piece of gossip yet: IDW is bringing readers a faboolous new miniseries from fang favorites Jacque Aye and Caroline Shuda, starting with a double-sized first issue. Frankie Stein, Draculaura, Clawdeen Wolf, Cleo de Nile, and Lagoona Blue are starting a new scaremester at Monster High, so this is a creeperific jumping-on point for new fangs. How eekciting. This year, the World's Scare is in New Salem! The brightest minds are gathering to exhibit their latest breakthroughs that could change monster-kind furever. And Monster High's very own Frankie Stein is dreaming up something monstrous to honor her late father, Headmaster Frankenstein. With a little help from her fiends, Frankie is sure to shock the judges."
Vampirella: Armageddon #1 (2025) hits the newsstands today. Here is the official summery: "Return to the future world of Vampirella and Sepulcher City in Vampirella: Armageddon, from Vampirella writer Tom Sniegoski and artist Kewber Baal! Picking up from where our last series (Vampirella Strikes!) left off, Vampirella faces internal and external forces of chaos as a new threat arrives to stare her down! A threat… not of this mortal plane!"
Of course, there are several variant covers to collect. One of my favorite covers is the Universal Monsters cover by Mark Spears since it has Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Wolfman, the Mummy and the Creature of the Black Lagoon.
Here's a special bonus treat for this week's women Wednesday. Zenescope Entertainment's Horror and Fantasy Illustrated 2024 Pinup Special came out earlier this month. The issue starts off with a special eight-page science fiction story.
The rest of the issue is filled with pinups of various women by different artists. The artwork includes fantasy, horror and science fiction. My favorite has to be the sexy mummy by Vinz El Tabanas
The Horror and fantasy Illustrated 2024 Pinup Special has several alternate covers. My favorite is Cover A featuring a demoness by Pierluigi Abbondanza.
Grimm Fairy Tales 2024 Halloween Special actually came out last Wednesday from Zenescope Entertainment but I decided to share it for this week's Women Wednesday post. The story's title is "Cinderella's Monster Mash" and for good reason. She meets Yertle the hunchback, Count Roberto Yeh the vampire, a vampire bride, Friday Barnes the ghost girl, Lily the mad scientist, a manbat monster, talking piranhas, a mummy, a werewolf and his four werewolf pups, and a bunch of ghosts (one that looks a lot like Wolverine). There is even a musical scene along with a homage to Scooby and the gang. This issue is full of puns and gags, but the artwork is good especially the page with Cinderella wearing her new black outfit.
The local Dollar General actually had one case of the new Kinder Joy Monsters stocked in the middle of September and never stocked any more. I only picked up eight since they were almost three dollars each. This year they had four little figures (mummy, skeleton, vampire and werewolf) that you could put cardboard cutouts on plus four wristbands (ghost, jack-o-lantern, skeleton and vampire bat). The figures and wristbands glow in the dark. I didn't get a complete set and I ended up with two vampires and two werewolves. I still need a skeleton figure and a vampire bat bracelet. Below are the monster figures but not the bracelets.
Here is the back of what the inserts look like that features the entire Kinder Joy Monsters collection:
Note: You can view the Kinder Joy Monsters from 2022 here.
This is the fifteenth year anniversary of the Countdown to Halloween at Moongem Comics and I hope you enjoyed it.
The cover of Star Trek: Holo-Ween #4 from IDW Publishing features Redjac with his arm around Scotty's neck while Armus has Riker as a Wolfman and Deanna Troi as a mummy queen in his grasp. This is the final issue of the mini-series and it was indeed a real treat to read.
Star Trek: Holo-Ween #3 came out this week from IDW Publishing. The cover features Worf as a Gill Man and Deanna Troi as a mummy queen being chased by a mob with the giant face of Redjac looming high in the background. This issue features a surprise (or not so surprise) guest star from the original series plus the return of a surprise (or not so surprise) villain also from original series.
Carmelia Creeper takes center stage on the box of the Monster Mash Remix cereal. She is joined by her cousin, Franken Berry, along with Count Chocula, Boo Berry, Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy. I missed out on the Monster Mash cereal that was released in 2021 for their fiftieth anniversary. The berry flavored cereal was a litter better than Carmelia Creeper's caramel apple flavored cereal and disappeared a little faster. This might be another one that I may not pick up again next year. I'm currently in the middle of the Count Chocula box and still have Franken Berry and Boo Berry to go. Yes, it takes me a while to finish off five family size boxes of Monster Cereals.
You can listen to the Monster Mash Remix at official Monster Cereal site.
IDW Publishing released Star Trek: Holo-Ween #2 earlier this week. The cover features Data as a Frankenstein monster facing Riker as a Wolfman while the face of Troi as a mummy queen looms in the background.
There is a great homage to classic monsters in this issue with Deanna Troi as a mummy queen, Riker as a wolfman, Worf as a Gill Man and Picard as Mr. Hyde:
Facebook went through another game purge last month and I lost several of my favorite games (Candy Crush Saga and Hit It Rich! Casiono to name a few). There are not very many Halloween-related games either. However, there is Dracula Solitaire. I'm on level 31 and it's a fun way to kill some time. There is a story of sorts that involves finding different monsters. So far, I have found the lady vampire and the mummy.
Sad news for vampire lovers and horror fans for Anne Rice, 'Interview with the Vampire' author, dies at 80.
I picked up this Halloween Party CD at the local Dollar Tree a few weeks ago thinking it was one of those deals where studio musicians do covers of spooky songs for kids. What I ended up hearing was the sexy voice of Janice Hagan doing jazzy lounge renditions of Halloween favorites. This CD was originally produced in 2007 and rereleased in 2012. The left side of the exterior of the Halloween Party CD insert #1 has the musicians listed with Janice Hagan on vocals, Kenny Vehkavaarn on guitar, Pat Kilbride on bass, Randy Cooke on drums, Rob Gusevs on piano, organ and synthesizer, Glendo Smith on saxaphone, Phil Gray on trombone and William Sperandel on trumpet and flugelhorn (yes, a flugelhorn). The right side (front cover) has a sexy witch singing in old-fashion microphone attached to a broom. In the background is a mummy and skeleton giving a toast while holding martinis. Behind them are more witches partying on either side of a cauldron with a fire underneath it. There are also bats flying around and an old leafless tree on the side.
The right side of of the interior of the Halloween Party CD insert #1 has the song credits while the left side has a recipe for Witch's Brew that can be made with or without rum or brandy. Just make sure you have plenty of apple cider.
The interior of the Halloween Party CD insert #2 would make a great Halloween wallpaper since it has plenty of orange with some yellow and black.
The exterior of the Halloween Party CD insert #2 (back cover) proclaims "Add a spooktacula to this year's Halloween Party with frightening festive music and scary sounds." The song list includes "Evil Ways", "That Old Black Magic", "Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead", "People Are Strange", "Witchy Woman", "I Put A Spell On You", "Spooky", "Black Magic Woman", "Witchcraft", "Monster Mash", "Bad Moon Rising" and "Welcome To My Nightmare". It's hard for me to pick just one favorite song since they all want me to drown a few martinis and just mellow out. The final track features about twenty minutes of spooky sounds, which seems out of place on this album.
You can listen to the entire album here for free on Spotify.